42 
Pliny's natural history. 
[Book XXIV. 
taken to gather it without the use of iron, the right hand 
being passed for the purpose through the left sleeve of the 
tunic, as though the gatherer were in the act of committing a 
theft.^^ The clothing too must be white, the feet bare and 
washed clean, and a sacrifice of bread and wine must be made 
before gathering it : it is carried also in a new napkin. The 
Druids of Gaul have pretended that this plant should be 
carried about the person as a preservative against accidents of 
all kinds, and that the smoke of it is extremely good for all 
maladies of the eyes. 
CHAP. 63. SAMOLIJS : TWO REMEDIES. 
The Druids, also, have given the name of '^samolus^'^ to a 
certain plant which grows in humid localities. This too, thej 
say, must be gathered fasting with the left hand, as a pre- 
servative against the maladies to which swine and cattle are 
subject. The person, too, who gathers it must be careful not 
to look behind him, nor must it be laid anywhere but in the 
troughs from which the cattle drink. 
CHAP. 64. — GUM : ELEVEN REMEDIES. 
We have already^* spoken of the different kinds of gum ; 
the better sort of each kind will be found the most effective. 
Gum is bad for the teeth ; it tends to make the blood coagu- 
late, and is consequently good for discharges^ of blood from 
the mouth. It is usefid for burns,^^ but is bad for diseases of 
the trachea. It exercises a diuretic effect, and tends to 
neutralize all acridities, being astringent in other respects. 
The gum of the bitter-almond tree, which has the most^^ 
according to Sprengel. Fee, however, dissents from that opinion, for the 
Lycopodium, he says, is but some three inches in height, while savin, with 
which the Selago is here compared, is more than eight or ten feet high. De 
Theis (Gloss, Botan.) thinks that it must have been a succulent plant ; but 
upon what grounds he bases that conjecture, Fee declares himself at a loss 
to conjecture. 
^2 Evidently a superstition derived from the Druids. 
Sprengel thinks that it is the Samolus Valerandi of Linnaeus, the round- 
leaved water-pimpernel, and Anguillara identifies it with the Anemone Pul- 
satilla, or pasque-flower. Fee inclines to the opinion that it is the Veronica 
beccabunga of Linnaeus, the brook-lime. 
In B. xiii. c. 20. 
Gum is still used, Fee says, for this purpose. 
^ It is of no use whatever for burns, or as a diuretic. 
^'5' Fee says that it is not different in any way from the gum of other trees. 
